Real estate agents have a lot to keep track of. Current clients, leads, listings, transactions, incoming messages, and contact lists are just a few of the things an agent has to monitor and manage during their day.
Fortunately, they don’t have to manage any of this information on their own. A solid customer relationship management (CRM) system puts all of this vital data — and more — in one location, so agents can access it at a moment’s notice and spend more time focusing on closing deals and generating revenue.
There’s currently no shortage of CRMs tailored to real estate agents, including Keller Williams’ KW Command. More than a CRM, KW’s integrated suite of tools helps KW-affiliated agents connect with their clients, oversee their business more efficiently, manage their database — and control their future.
“We want to be the primary hub of a real estate agent’s business when it comes to technology, and allow for the ability to integrate with the products agents know and love,” Keller Williams Senior LABS Manager Donnie Brookman says. “The great thing about Command is it’s a centralized point and shared ecosystem between agents and their market center. It creates the most seamless transaction experience.”
If you’re not using a CRM to manage your real estate business, there’s no better time to start. Keep reading to learn more about how you can benefit from a real estate CRM, how Command can transform your business, and how it compares to other CRMs in the industry.
Benefits of Using a CRM in Real Estate
If time is a real estate agent’s most valuable asset, it’s hard to imagine a more critical tool than a good CRM. It can make every aspect of the job easier. For example, CRMs can automate lead follow-up, send marketing emails, and monitor property leads.
With a good CRM, database contacts can be organized and updated automatically, and leads and listings can be streamlined. Plus, most quality CRMs work in tandem with marketing tools and social media platforms. Every minute a CRM saves through database, marketing, and communication automations is a minute a real estate agent can use to focus on growing their business and profits.
“We like to think of technology as not replacing someone’s ability to connect on a human level, but rather helping them scale their superpowers as a human-based, relationship-building business,” Donnie says.
KW Command®, which was designed and built by KW specifically for Keller Williams® agents, delivers these benefits (and then some). For example, the contact management feature allows agents to not only add, organize, and manage their leads and contacts, but also filter them and apply tags for easy searches. KW® agents can also use Command to create and manage their email, social media, and direct mail campaigns, as well as design personalized marketing materials.
SmartPlans is a key tool inside Command, allowing agents to automate follow-up communications with their clients. For example, KW created a Quarterly Call SmartPlan you can leverage to give yourself automatic 90-day prompts to call a client.* Or you might put another client on a monthly neighborhood nurture SmartPlan to provide them with hyper-local information about the neighborhoods they’re interested in. Because every client is different, SmartPlans lets you determine the right mode of communication and the cadence that best serves your clients’ individual needs and complies with federal and state marketing laws.
“SmartPlans is all about systemizing that communication,” Donnie says.
Being a real estate agent is about so much more than listing and selling homes. The profession has turned independent agents into full-fledged business owners, and real estate CRMs like Command help make that role easier. With the Reports feature in Command, agents can assess the strength of their database, analyze performance metrics, and track goals. And with the Referral network applet, KW-affiliated agents can also view referral patterns and determine avenues for expansion through their network.
Evaluating Real Estate CRMs
Whether you’re convinced Command® is the perfect real estate CRM for your business or you want to shop around, there are several factors to consider in your evaluation. For instance, since CRMs are meant to save time, be sure yours has a user-friendly interface and is easy to work with overall. In the event you do have difficulty, it helps to have a support team that’s always ready to help, like Command does.
KW provides help in a number of ways, so every agent can feel confident using Command, Donnie says. The CRM is built to be as intuitive as possible, thanks to ongoing feedback the LABS team receives from agents during their development and updating processes. KW provides strategies to handle the most common Command-related activities and to show how the platform can be leveraged, while shared training resources help ensure Command education is consistent across the KW ecosystem.
“KW is one of the best real estate training companies in the world,” Donnie says. Whether you’re a brand new agent or an established agent switching over to Command, you’ll find the support you need. “Every market center is encouraged to have a market center tech trainer onsite who can facilitate group training, one-on-one training appointments, and consulting to help people learn to leverage the product,” he notes.
The top real estate CRMs have no shortage of features to help agents manage and grow their businesses, but there are a few key features to keep in mind when evaluating a platform. These include a CRM’s lead generation tools, the ability to follow up with leads and clients, client database organization — and how well it can automate related tasks. If a CRM is subpar at these core tasks, it’s probably not worth your time to pursue it further.
CRMs that do perform core tasks swimmingly, however, can likely handle whatever else you need them to do. You’ll next want to look at how a CRM integrates with email systems, different marketing tools, and third-party applications. And since real estate agents are often on the go, a CRM needs to work well not just on a desktop computer, but on a laptop, tablet, and of course, a smartphone.
“I have tested every other CRM’s mobile experience and, in my opinion, Command Mobile knocks everyone else out of the water, hands down,” Donnie says. “The mobile Command experience is a seamless way to support an agent while they’re working on the go, which, for most agents, is more than 80 percent of the time.”
Price also needs to be considered when comparing CRMs. CRM costs vary, but Command access is included in a KW® agent’s technology fee. And beginning in Q3 2025, Command will offer Canva integration to assist with marketing material design. Meanwhile, other real estate CRMs could cost you up to $1,000 per month (or more) when you add in setup costs, advertising, add-ons, and a minimum term. You could end up paying up to $200 for just one lead with some services, versus only an average of $3 a lead with Command.
Why KW® Agents Should Use KW Command®
By now, it should be clear why every real estate agent should use a CRM to run their business. The systems are designed to save you time by automating tasks that once had to be done manually. Real estate CRMs are also crucial when it comes to revenue generation, as automations can be used to follow up with more leads in a shorter amount of time than ever before — a major advantage in an era of “speed to lead.”
Ultimately, the question isn’t about whether or not a real estate agent should use a CRM, but rather which one. For KW-affiliated agents, Command is the best choice, given that the proprietary system is specifically designed for those working within the KW ecosystem. Command seamlessly integrates with other KW tools, including Referral Network, the KW mobile app, and the Keller Williams Listing System (KWLS).
With Command, Keller Williams® agents also require fewer third-party tools. Command takes functionalities like transaction status tracking, marketing, contact management, and reporting, and consolidates them in a single, all-in-one platform. KW Command integrates with numerous third-party applications so agents can customize and run their business in the manner that works best for them. The savings extend to include email campaigns and marketing designs, all at no additional cost.
KW Command® in Action
It’s one thing to hear about how beneficial Command can be, and another to see it actually work for a real estate agent. The Stacey Sauls Group at Keller Williams® Realty Ballantyne Area in Charlotte, North Carolina, offers just one example of how Command helped vastly improve their operations.
Before Command, CEO Stacey Sauls used a Popsicle stick system to track her database. She’d write a lead’s name and contact information on a stick and place cups on her desk labeled with categories such as “buyers,” “sellers under contract,” and “closed.” As a lead moved through the process, she’d move the stick to the corresponding cup.
When the team finally went digital, it wasn’t with Command, but with Facebook. They made heavy use of the platform’s group chat feature, and mornings started with sorting through hundreds of messages. Some were important and pertained to lead follow-up and pipelines, while others were entirely unrelated to real estate, says the team’s group director of operations, Bobbi Huston.
“It was complete chaos, but you had to read them all because you didn’t know [which were important],” Bobbi says. “There was no segmenting, pipelines, or checklists.”
Huston proposed using Command, since the platform was established within Keller Williams and designed specifically for KW® agents. Stacey gave Bobbi the go-ahead, and things changed for the better. Almost 90% of the group’s business comes from its database, which Command has made easier to manage. Each day, the team discusses what they want to communicate, which segment of their database they want to reach, and how they want to get in touch — whether through email, SmartPlans, or follow-up touch tasks.
“[Command] is definitely the reason we make money,” Bobbi says. “The fortune is in the follow-up, and there’s not a chance that any potential prospect or lead we have in our database could fall through the cracks because of the way we’ve set it up and everything that’s available to us through Command. We’ve been able to eliminate lead waste, and that’s helped us expand, scale, and duplicate in ways we wouldn’t have been able to.”
If you’re with Keller Williams, Command is a powerful, low-cost option for managing your real estate business. Organization, time savings, automated communication and follow-up, and cost savings are just a few of the benefits you’ll enjoy by making Command core to your business.
See how KW Command can empower you and your team.
*WARNING! You must comply with the TCPA and any other federal, state, or local laws, including for B2B calls and texts. Never call or text a number on any Do Not Call list, and do not use an autodialer or artificial voice, or prerecorded messages without proper consent. Contact your attorney to ensure your compliance.